ABSTRACT
Tourism contributes globally to development, but urban tourism in most of Africa seems to be challenged by environmental and social risks. This chapter maps out urban sprawl, the political economy of waste and urban tourism development by asking questions such as how to promote both tourism in a dirty environment and top-down policies that encourage garbage collection and promote recycling. It notes that because Ghana’s urbanisation is developing exponentially and outstripping social services provisions, such as waste management, promoting tourism as part of a broad development strategy is challenged. The tourism sector in Ghana is under threat from filth – organic, plastic and electronic. This is an environmental risk that threatens the very existence of the tourism industry. First, tourism thrives on both aesthetic and intrinsic values of the environment. Urbanisation and attendant informal economic activities and waste compromise tourism development potential by impacting the aesthetic and intrinsic values of the surroundings.
